NEW YORK – The dimensions of the new Yankee Stadium are reportedly the same as the old stadium they left behind.
Or so they say.
Oddly enough though, for the first 23 games that have been played at our new palace, something very odd is happening.
Yankee Stadium has transformed into Coors Field East.
How is this possible? It is still 314 to right field.
We think.
It is 408 to dead center and 399 to the power alley in left center.
We think.
After 86 home runs, we really do not know what to think anymore. Baseballs are flying out the park at an alarming and absurd rate.
What would look to be a routine fly to the outfield off the swing of the bat now brings no surprise if it finds the seats for a homerun. Balls hit out to right field come as a shock to me when they do not go out of the yard.
It has turned out to be Nintendo baseball being played for real. The old controllers are being replaced by players holding bats when they come to the plate these days. It is a humanized version of RBI baseball.
Camden Yards, US Cellular Field and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington were thought to be the bandboxes of the American League. That title (for now) must go to our place in The Bronx where it is on pace to have over 300 home runs hit, a record for the most ever hit in one ballpark.
Now, you can look at this situation two ways. Is this a good thing for the Yankees or a bad thing?
Well, considering the offensive power that the team possesses, having a park that plays to this strength should be a plus. It means that you are never out of a game if you can get a few men on base.
Achieving a “crooked number” is never that far away and when you have hitters like Jeter, Damon, Teixeira, Rodriguez, Cano and Posada, this is good thing.
Now, the downside is that the pitchers have zero margin for error. Because of what appears to be an opening of the wind currents in the new stadium that were nonexistent at the old place has allowed homeruns to be given some aided assistance and in many cases, too much.
Over the weekend against Philadelphia, several homeruns hit off the bat had the look of routine flies that simply continued to carry…all the way out of the park.
Saturday afternoon saw Phillies right fielder John Mayberry Jr. made his Major League debut and hit a drive to left field off Andy Pettitte that did not appear to have much power on it. Unfortunately, like a portion of the home runs that have been hit this season, it carried 10 rows into the seats.
In the ninth inning, Alex Rodriguez a shot to right field off closer Brad Lidge on a line. He struck the ball well, but it was able to barely clear the fence to tie the game. I’m almost sure last year that ball at the very best goes to the wall or comes up short. Instead, it went out.
The most egregious was on Sunday when Mark Teixeira got great wood on a pitch from Phillies starter Cole Hamels. The pitch broke Teixeira bat and it looked as if it would be a harmless fly. What ended up happening was something you very rarely see, a broken bat home run that went eight rows into the seats in left field.
Incredible.
We are still searching around how to best play the park and here are some early conclusions:
1. If you are a fly ball pitcher, expect to give up home runs.
2. If you are an average pitcher that yields an inordinate amount of fly balls, good luck to you.
3. Groundball pitchers will best succeed here.
Of course, this would have worked well for Chien-Ming Wang, but because of his problems this season, it has never been put into practice.
4. Dominant pitching will win out.
Now it is still early in the season, so there is no telling if an eventual market correction. The problem though is that the weather, outside of a few games, has not been very good. As the weather warms up here in these later months, the ball is only going to carry out even more.
This is going to result in Yankee pitchers having to adjust the way they pitch to guard against the long ball while knowing that a few of them will find their way out. Earned run averages are sure to be inflated because of the uptick in the amount of runs that will be given up there.
However, a problem for the Yankees offense would come from how their lineup would perform on the road. What we have seen from other teams when they leave their hitters friendly park is that they do not perform as well on the road. Whether we see the same situation take place with this team is yet to be seen.
A decade ago, baseball had a marketing campaign that said, “Chicks dig the long ball”.
The chicks might. The hitters might. The concession vendors might.
Perhaps the only detractors are the pitchers who have looked to enter their own personal hell.
We all just have to deal with it.
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